August 11, 2024 -- Issue #353
Hi, Charlie Uniman here, host of Legal Tech StartUp Focus ("LTSF"), the online community for everyone involved with legal tech startups. You're reading the latest digest of articles, opinion pieces, and other thoughts posted during the past week at the community.
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Exit/M&A
◾ From Legal IT Insider:
"Francisco Partners announced today (5 August) that it will acquire Elite from TPG Capital and Thomson Reuters, which retained a stake in Elite following its sale to TPG in 2023
https://legaltechnology.com/2025/08/05/francisco-partners-acquires-elite-from-tpg/
◾ From Legal IT Insider:
“Litera today (7 August) announced a strategic investment in Postilize and the launch of Foundation Proactive, Powered by Postilize, providing Litera customers with an experience-based relationship management solution drawing on Postilize, Litera Foundation and Peppermint products”
$$ Quote: “It is unusual for Litera to invest in young companies rather than acquire them outright, but Adam Ryan, chief product officer at Litera told Legal IT Insider: ‘We chose to make a strategic investment because speed and agility are critical in today’s legal tech landscape. We want to quickly support Postilize’s growth trajectory and start collaborating and creating value for clients immediately while maintaining the entrepreneurial momentum that makes Postilize so innovative.’”
https://legaltechnology.com/2025/08/07/litera-makes-strategic-investment-in-ai-crm-startup-postilize/
◾ From the Aderant press release today, August 7, 2025:
"ATLANTA, GA — August 7, 2025 — Aderant, a leading global provider of business management solutions for law firms, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the legal technology assets from HerculesAI, a pioneer in AI-driven billing compliance and decision intelligence. This strategic move marks a significant leap forward in Aderant’s mission to deliver a fully automated, insight-rich, and agile work-to-cash solution for the legal industry."
Access the entire press release at this link: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/88826351?utm_source=manual
Fundraising
◾ From Legaltech News:
"August, a developer of agentic artificial intelligence tools for midsize law firms, announced Tuesday that it raised $7 million in a seed-funding round led by New Enterprise Associates and Pear VC. The round also included participation from multiple law schools, as well as individual angel investors including David Azose, senior director of engineering at OpenAI, among others.
"August declined to disclose the names of the law schools participating in the seed funding round. In a press release, however, August cited Stanford Law School as one of its 'leading investors.'"
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/08/05/legal-ai-startup-august-announces-7M-in-seed-funding-with-law-school-investment-/?kw=Legal+AI+Startup+August+Announces+$7M+in+Seed+Funding,+With+Law+School+Investment&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20250806&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A
◾ From Yahoo Finance:
“Blue J, a generative AI (genAI) tax research platform, has raised $122m (C$168.26m) in a Series D funding round led by Oak HC/FT and Sapphire Ventures.
“The funding round also included participation from Intrepid Growth Partners and previous investors Ten Coves Capital and CPA.com.
“It will be used to support Blue J's efforts to expand its team, enhance product development and increase market reach.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blue-j-secures-122m-series-143624399.html?utm_source=newsletter.strictlyvc.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=more-tech-tariffs&_bhlid=ee55b92cb24e02dc48fed17f4542970bad8da2c7
Hiring/New Hires
◾ Legal IT Insider reports:
“James Connor has joined data synchronisation and management platform Syncly as its new SVP of global sales & partnerships, joining from Opus 2, where he was VP of sales for the UK, EMEA and APAC, we can reveal. Syncly is also launching its first product since inception – Syncly Govern.”
“[Syncly] It provides real time, two-way synchronisation between legal platforms such as iManage, NetDocuments, HighQ and Microsoft Teams, to ensure that data is in the right place and complies with information governance requirements. It helps law firms to synchronise and move documents between platforms to ensure that the system of record is complete, and it also provides an audit trail of where documents have been moved from and to.”
https://legaltechnology.com/2025/08/10/exclusive-syncly-hires-james-connor-as-svp-of-global-sales-launches-first-product/
Member Introductions/Questions
◾ New community member, Luke Dyas, introduces himself to the community: "I’m the CMO and Co-founder of Eleos Law, a tech-enabled, human-in-the-loop mass tort case management platform spun out of Wisner Baum, one of the most successful plaintiff firms in the US. A former JPMorgan technology banker and litigation funder, I’m passionate about using technology to transform the business of law, helping firms scale their dockets, enhance plaintiff outcomes and improve access to justice."
Partnerships/Business Development
◾ What Legal Tech News calls its “pre-ILTACon” legal tech rundown:
“With the ILTACON 2025 around the corner, there’s a lot of news to catch up on to prepare for the four-day event. Thankfully, Legaltech News has got you covered.
“From product releases to new hires, and M&As to investments, here's a look at all the announcements we've received over the past days leading up to ILTACON 2025 in National Harbor, Maryland.” https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/08/08/pre-iltacon-legaltech-rundown-litera-invests-in-postilize-harvey-partners-with-wolters-kluwer-and-more/
Product Development
◾ Legaltech News reporting:
"On Tuesday, Thomson Reuters announced the launch of CoCounsel Legal, which integrates the company’s research, analysis and drafting capabilities within a single platform, and offers “guided workflows” that use agentic artificial intelligence (AI) to automate legal tasks.
"CoCounsel Legal also includes a new version of Westlaw called Westlaw Advantage that comes with deep research capabilities, powered by iterative agentic AI processes, and a Litigation Document Analyzer that replaces Westlaw’s former document analysis tool Quick Check with new capabilities and a redesigned interface."
◾ From the NetDocuments press release issued today, August 5, 2025:
"Salt Lake City, UT – August 5, 2025 — NetDocuments, the #1 trusted intelligent document management system (DMS) for legal professionals, today announced the expansion of its Intelligent DMS with new AI-powered capabilities including AI Profiling, powered by seamless background applications, as well as a new Agentic AI Editing Tool in Microsoft Word."
The entire press release can be accessed at this link: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/88695401?utm_source=manual
◾ From the LawSites blog:
“. . . Litera has announced updates to its Foundation Platform firm intelligence suite, including adding Microsoft Outlook integration and expanded AI capabilities through its Lito assistant.”
Get a survey of then significant Foundation enhancements that Litera has made “on the road to ILTACon”at this link: https://www.lawnext.com/2025/08/litera-expands-foundation-platform-with-outlook-integration-and-ai-features.html
◾ Legaltech News reports:
“A San Francisco legal tech startup announced Wednesday that it will be launching a new tool to prevent the misuse of artificial intelligence in law firms.
“Truth Systems, a company focused on improving legal practitioners’ trust in generative AI, is slated to debut an AI agent called Charter at the International Legal Tech Association Conference next week, according to a press release from the company.
“Charter is designed to provide real-time enforcement of law firms’ internal AI policies, the press release said.”
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/08/06/legal-tech-startup-truth-systems-announces-tool-for-preventing-ai-misuse-in-law-firms/
◾ Comminity member, Matt George, posts: "Introducing Injuria, the competitive intelligence platform for personal injury attorneys. We are currently in beta and actively looking for pi attorneys to test out the platform before we hard launch next month. If you know a (marketing savvy) pi attorney who would enjoy early access to this tool, feel free to kick this their way or shoot me a DM. I would appreciate it. https://injuria.ai/"
Purchasing/Using Legal Tech
◾ From Legaltech News:
"Ari Kaplan speaks with a cross-section of leaders in legal technology and legal services for the Q2 2025 Ari Kaplan Advisors CEO Roundtable."
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/08/04/ceo-roundtable-legal-sector-ceos-recap-the-first-half-of-2025-and-see-opportunity-ahead/?kw=CEO+Roundtable:+Legal+Sector+CEOs+Recap+the+First+Half+of+2025+and+See+Opportunity+Ahead&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=afternoonupdate&utm_content=20250804&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&slreturn=20250804160752
◾ A link below to a LinkedIn post from Infodash:
From the LinkedIn post: We’re proud to welcome Macfarlanes as the latest firm to select Infodash as its intranet platform! This partnership represents a key milestone in the ongoing expansion of our global presence. By leveraging Infodash’s capabilities, Macfarlanes is building a modern, dynamic, and personalized intranet to strengthen connection and collaboration across the firm."
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/getinfodash_were-proud-to-welcome-macfarlanes-as-the-activity-7358490805298233344-ChTx?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACjKkUBuYvfoBWwBGd7KKABZw3jrdiBcc0
◾ Timely article from Legal Tech News about how law firms' billing for AI-generated work:
"While clients want firms to use AI to speed up legal processes, they still have questions over who is doing the work—humans or machines—particularly complex work. So how firms bill for AI work fairly and appropriately, while maintaining client trust, is coming under sharp focus."
Entire article here: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/08/06/tech-charge-the-tricky-issue-of-billing-clients-for-ai-generated-work/?kw=%27Tech+Charge%27:+The+Tricky+Issue+of+Billing+Clients+for+AI-Generated+Work&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20250807&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A
◾ From Artificial Lawyer:
"The battle for market share among the genAI productivity platforms took another step forward today as UK-based BCLP said it had picked Legora, following a pilot.
"The pilot was conducted over several months, ‘incorporating feedback from a diverse group of legal professionals…the results demonstrated significant improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and overall satisfaction among the participating lawyers’, the international law firm said."https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/08/07/market-share-battle-continues-as-bclp-picks-legora/
◾ So what does OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT-5 mean for legal tech? Fortunately, Artificial Lawyer asked senior leaders at four legal tech companies (TR, Harvey, Spellbook and Legora) to give their early access “hot takes” on this question.
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/08/07/gpt-5-launches-harvey-spellbook-tr-already-have-it/
◾ As VC Tom Tunguz explains in the article linked below, we humans will become - to a great extent - “agent managers” as LLMs become better and better at calling and orchestrating tools external to themselves.
From the linked article:
“The new axis of competition [among LLM models]? Tool-calling.
“Tool-calling transforms LLMs from advisors to actors. It compensates for two critical model weaknesses that pure language models can’t overcome.
“First, workflow orchestration. Models excel at single-shot responses but struggle with multi-step, stateful processes. Tools enable them to manage long workflows, tracking progress, handling errors, maintaining context across dozens of operations.
“Second, system integration. LLMs live in a text-only world. Tools let them interface predictably with external systems like databases, APIs, and enterprise software, turning natural language into executable actions.” https://tomtunguz.com/gpt5-tool-calling-revolution/
◾ A link below to a LinkedIn post from Michael Grupp, BRYTER’s Managing Director and CEO, that provides some “Really Good,” “Good,” and “Worse” comparisons of GPT-5 with previous OpenAI models.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michael-grupp_iltacon2025-activity-7359593281623576576-DphS?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAACjKkUBuYvfoBWwBGd7KKABZw3jrdiBcc0
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